‘The Flash’ Director Andy Muschietti On Nicolas Cage’s Bizarre CG-Heavy Superman Cameo: “We Don’t Care!”
JB Augustine
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Nicolas Cage’s cameo in The Flash — a shot at redemption for his turn as Superman that never came to be — was unverified speculation people kept guessing about until the film’s helmsman, Andy Muschietti, blabbed and spoiled it. Weeks before the premiere, he reflected on living a dream of working with Cage, if only for a few minutes, that didn’t amount to much ultimately.
Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula in Renfield (2023), Universal Pictures
Shooting his scene ended up being for naught once it became apparent his performance of a fight with a giant spider was completely covered over, and possibly replaced, by CGI which is subpar by CW standards. Muschietti later defended how the effects look, to considerable dismay, by trying to explain — or backtrack — that everything is seen through Barry’s POV.
He expanded on this train of thought in an interview with The Playlist where he discussed more regarding his direction of Cage. “We talked with Nicolas, and we decided to shoot him in his suit,” Muschietti said. “And so, we built the suit with the same costume designer that built the suit for the unproduced ‘Superman Lives’…”
Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) glides across the battlefield in The Flash (2023), Warner Bros. Pictures
The Argentine director then opined that Superman Lives “is a movie that would have been great, but nobody will see because it wasn’t made,” which goes without saying. He added, “But the excitement was shared with Nicolas, and Nicolas is such a kind guy, and I think he shared the enthusiasm for bringing back that movie that was never done – even for a couple minutes in our movie.”
Muschietti did not address the visual effects that supplanted Cage, though his movements may still have supplied the motion capture. Instead, the filmmaker was more focused on Superman Lives existing phantasmally somewhere in the Multiverse. “Someone said, ‘What about the people that don’t know that Nicolas Cage [was going to be Superman]?” he revealed, seeing only an opportunity.
Ezra Miller and Sasha Calle as The Flash and Supergirl in Andy Muschietti’s, “The Flash.”
“Wouldn’t it be a funny moment to see Nicolas Cage out of nowhere dressed as Superman?'” Muschietti added. For the doubters of his vision, nonplussed by the cameo and asking too many questions, the director had a simple, blunt answer. “And our answer was, ‘We don’t care!'” Methinks he speaks as much for Warner Bros. as he does himself.
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